Digital Releases

I have put out quite a few albums now over the years but as you may have noticed, only one album, 'One Way Ticket' has had a physical release (two if you include the 'Head Above Water' EP, which was completely home-made). Sometimes I've encountered people who don't seem so keen on digital releases, either because they don't have access or know how they work, but also because some associate digital-only releases with the agenda, the end of the old era and entry into the cold, clinical digital world we seem to be heading towards.

I want to make it totally clear where I stand on this matter and the reasoning behind my actions. My favourite way of listening to music is vinyl. As a child I grew up with cassettes and vinyl before moving onto CD's in the 1990s. I have never really gotten into digital music. I don't own any streaming accounts, I never listen to music this way, although I have bought digital downloads that I can put on an mp3 player. These days whenever I do that I always go for Hi-Res and never use mp3s.

With my own music, its really this simple. I cannot currently afford to release my singles and albums physically. I would love to but its just not possible in this climate. The 'One Way Ticket' period, around 2006, was a one-off as it required quite a bit of expenditure which I couldn't possibly manage on each subsequent release. As well as paying the producer to play, mix and master that album, there were the costs of having a run of CDs pressed with full colour booklet. If things had taken off from there I certainly would have continued releasing this way and eventually also vinyl and cassette. I haven't given up on that but for the foreseeable future it's just not possible.

I'm very grateful for the internet in that sense. If it wasn't for digital downloads and streaming I wouldn't be able to release my songs at all to the world. There are many aspects of being an indie artist that just wouldn't be possible, or at least not without serious expenditure, without the internet. So I'm not a luddite, I was very optimistic about what the internet could open up when I first discovered it in the 90s. It's only in recent years I've not been so happy about the direction it's taken and what it's done to humanity. Or rather what it's brought out in humanity.

So, if at some point in the future it is possible, I will certainly put out physical releases. In fact, a year or two ago, I considered getting a decent cassette deck and making home-made cassette releases of my work, including hand-made artwork for any new releases to cassette. That may still happen if anybody is interested. Ideally, I would like to put everything out on all formats.